My daughter has her own 'private' walled garden leading off her bedroom - the cats love it here !
It's a difficult room to photograph because of the odd layout & looks a bit sparse in the photo's but is actually quite cozy !I recently posted about the fact that I was re decorating my daughter’s bedroom. (If you’re interested, you can read all about that along with the typical frustrating African process of trying to get the right shade of paint for it here.)
Nelson (our resident painter/handyman) has done a great job, and it is now complete, so I thought I’d post some photo’s for you to see. It’s difficult to see from the photo’s, but each wall is painted in an alternating shade of either pink or lilac. The ceiling is also painted in these shades, as are the doors and doorframes. I’ve also used both shades on the bed, shelving, cupboard (not visible in the photos) and bookshelf. As I said to my husband, I would only ever go really crazy with colour like this in a young child’s bedroom, and certainly not anywhere else in the house ! (Although I have just painted the back wall of our bedroom a deep Ox Blood/Paprika colour, and it looks lovely).
I still want to add another shelf, have a side table made and add some butterfly stencils on to the wall … the wall above her bed that is that odd shape, is actually the back of the fireplace in our main lounge so it keeps her room nice and warm in Winter !
Most furniture here has to be custom made, if you really want to get something nice. I went on to the website of a large well known UK furniture manufacturer and found the style of bed I wanted for my daughter, printed out a picture of it and got what measurements I could, then sat with Nelson and explained to him how I wanted him to make it. We went out and bought the wood, and – voila ! This is how I get most of my furniture made here.
It’s great fun to take, say, a picture from a glossy interior design magazine and get a carpenter to make something for you … recently I had a gorgeous king size sleigh style “inspired” bed made for our guest bedroom and it turned out really well and is better than anything I could buy in a shop here, as it has been lovingly hand carved and made by someone who really loves what he does. I wanted an extra length bed so changed the measurements accordingly – then I had a problem finding a mattress here that fit it. As we can only buy foam mattresses here I had to buy one and an off cut and glue the 2 together to get the correct size ….. nothing is really straightforward or easy here in Africa, you know ;)
Nelson (our resident painter/handyman) has done a great job, and it is now complete, so I thought I’d post some photo’s for you to see. It’s difficult to see from the photo’s, but each wall is painted in an alternating shade of either pink or lilac. The ceiling is also painted in these shades, as are the doors and doorframes. I’ve also used both shades on the bed, shelving, cupboard (not visible in the photos) and bookshelf. As I said to my husband, I would only ever go really crazy with colour like this in a young child’s bedroom, and certainly not anywhere else in the house ! (Although I have just painted the back wall of our bedroom a deep Ox Blood/Paprika colour, and it looks lovely).
I still want to add another shelf, have a side table made and add some butterfly stencils on to the wall … the wall above her bed that is that odd shape, is actually the back of the fireplace in our main lounge so it keeps her room nice and warm in Winter !
Most furniture here has to be custom made, if you really want to get something nice. I went on to the website of a large well known UK furniture manufacturer and found the style of bed I wanted for my daughter, printed out a picture of it and got what measurements I could, then sat with Nelson and explained to him how I wanted him to make it. We went out and bought the wood, and – voila ! This is how I get most of my furniture made here.
It’s great fun to take, say, a picture from a glossy interior design magazine and get a carpenter to make something for you … recently I had a gorgeous king size sleigh style “inspired” bed made for our guest bedroom and it turned out really well and is better than anything I could buy in a shop here, as it has been lovingly hand carved and made by someone who really loves what he does. I wanted an extra length bed so changed the measurements accordingly – then I had a problem finding a mattress here that fit it. As we can only buy foam mattresses here I had to buy one and an off cut and glue the 2 together to get the correct size ….. nothing is really straightforward or easy here in Africa, you know ;)
